Les Claypool: Deep Into The Fungi

By: Matt Dalley

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

With his wildly experimental music and eccentric personality, electric bass legend Les Claypool has been freaking out the eardrums of music fans worldwide since the 1980s. The role he took as lead singer and bass player for alt-rock trio Primus sent Claypool skyrocketing into the public eye. After Primus went on hiatus in 2000, a few musical side projects, the occasional show with Primus and a plethora of other endeavors led the bass virtuoso to his current gig – selling out venues across Americas while promoting his most recent work of solo aural art, Of Fungi and Foe (released March 17 on Prawn Song).

As one of the music industry’s more ambitious players, Les Claypool didn’t always have the luxury of a cult following like he does today, rather his beginnings are quite humble. It was during his freshman year of high school that his enjoyment of listening to music began to evolve into a passion for playing it.

“We [Les and his father] went down to Al’s Music, he knew Al, and we bought this Fender P-Bass copy. I pulled weeds all summer to pay for the damn thing. And because there weren’t that many bass players back then – everybody wanted to be Eddie Van Halen – I was in big demand immediately. So, I was instantly in a band,” remembers Claypool.

Claypool has come a long way since high school. Currently, it’s not uncommon for the musician to be found galloping around a large stage at a massive music festival, appearing at ease in front of tens of thousands of fans. However, his first public performance couldn’t have been any more to the contrary. “My first gig was in the cafeteria at our high school and I was so nervous I stood sideways ’cause I couldn’t look at the audience,” Claypool reminisces.

Post-high school, Claypool accrued valuable experience by playing in a number of local bands, including an R&B outfit that primarily played to the occupants of biker bars in Northern California. “I was playing for Hell’s Angels pretty much every weekend. That was good discipline for me,” he comments. “I learned a lot in those days.”

With his dues fully paid, Claypool formed Primus in 1984. Primus spent years moving up the musical ladder of fame. Out of the six studio albums Primus released, two (Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda) attained platinum status. Although Primus acquired international recognition and a Grammy nomination, their obscure sound remains challenging to categorize.

Les Claypool

“We’ve been listed as alternative back in the day. We were progressive metal at one point in time. We were punk funk. When we opened for U2, we were listed as a grunge band,” explains Claypool. “We’ve played with all these different artists through all these different things, so I don’t really know what to call it or how to define any of this.”

In the early 2000s, when Primus took a hiatus, Claypool had the opportunity to focus on other projects. However, even before Primus took the break, Claypool had other combos in the works. Formed in 2000, Oysterhead was one of the more well-known projects Claypool played a role in. Oysterhead involved Phish’s six-string shredder Trey Anastasio and drummer Stewart Copeland from The Police. Oysterhead’s only release, 2001’s The Grand Pecking Order, garnered three-and-a-half stars from Rolling Stone and a world tour.

During the Oysterhead days, Claypool also spent time with another side project, Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. The group, that included the likes of Skerik, Jack Irons, Tim Alexander and Mirv, was originally concocted for the Mountain Aire Festival in Calaveras County, California. The lengthy band name is an allusion to Mark Twain’s 1867 work “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country.” The collective, often simply referred to as the Frog Brigade, released one studio album, Purple Onion, and two live album’s, Live Frogs: Set 1 and Live Frogs: Set 2. The latter of the two live albums is a cover of Pink Floyd’s entire epic Animals album.

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

Another major endeavor, Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, began seemingly by chance. Praxis and Les Claypool were both slated to play Bonnaroo in 2002. When Praxis bass player Bill Laswell found himself unable to perform, the entire band was nearly dropped from the bill. Saving the day, Claypool stepped in and volunteered his talents by offering to jam with the available members which included keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell, best known for his work with Parliament-Funkadelic and The Talking Heads. Also sharing the stage was the mysterious, mask-donning guitarist Buckethead and drummer Bryan “Brain” Mantia. Although the impromptu group played no pre-rehearsed songs, members of the band felt great about what happened that fateful day in Tennessee.

“The first note I ever played with Bernie Worrell was in front of 5,000 people,” says Claypool. “We just enjoyed it.” Jamming remained a popular theme of Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, often referred to as C2B3, especially as the band recorded and released their only album, The Big Eyeball in the Sky.

Continue reading for more on Les Claypool…

It’s a bit darker and eerier than some of the stuff I’ve done in the recent past. It’s very textural, somewhat tribal, sort of abstract Americana. –Les Claypool on Of Fungi and Foe

Photo of Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

The concept of jamming has spanned into other aspects of Claypool’s diverse career. The jam scene finds itself at the center of the 2008 release, Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo. The mockumentary, which Claypool wrote, directed and starred in, follows the rise to fame of the fictional jam band Electric Apricot. Hilarity ensues as the Grateful Dead worshiping neo-hippie members of the Electric Apricot attempt to record an album and play an opening slot at the famed (and fictional) jam festival Festeroo. Massive ego problems combined with drug and alcohol related issues frequently plague the quirky group.

Les Claypool by Fil Manley

At face value, one may interpret the film as Claypool taking a jab at the jam scene, but Claypool feels as though the film is a parody of creative people taking themselves too seriously, not specifically freeform musicians. “The film is more taking the piss out of the four creative individuals. It’s taking the piss out of the creative mind,” Claypool comments. “People within the [jam] scene find the film very endearing.”

Even on his current tour, improvised music can regularly be found creeping out of the Ampeg bass amps located on stage. Although his various projects may not be one of the first to come to mind when the term ‘jam band’ is spoken, Claypool still finds improvisation to be an important aspect of his work.

“I find the [jam] scene, especially as I’ve moved through it over the past several years, it’s not so much about the style of music you play, because it covers many different styles,” says Claypool. “It’s about the approach to music. It’s about keeping the parameters loose and keeping the borders, of songs and what not, open.”

Claypool is able to expand the borders of jam music without using one of the jam scene’s cornerstone instruments, the electric guitar. Much of his recently released and live work is sans guitar. This non-standard instrumentation forces the emphasis of a song into other areas than guitar soloing. Bringing a smile to the faces of low-end enthusiasts everywhere, the bass guitar is frequently found in the front of the mix. And the basses Claypool utilizes are sometimes as unconventional as the music he uses them to play. His instruments range from a bass that closely resembles a banjo to a six string bass to the Whamola, which looks like a very thin stand up bass with only one string and a lever at the top. Claypool creates a tone by hitting the string with a stick. He then moves the lever up and down to adjust the pitch. The Whamola bears an odd resemblance to the Grim Reaper’s scythe and can create sounds similar to a car revving up.

The Whamola provides the percussive bass sounds that can be heard on “Mushroom Men,” the opening track from Of Fungi and Foe. The song “Mushroom Men” began as part of a soundtrack Claypool was working on for the Nintendo games Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars and Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi. The video games center around tribes of living and warring mushrooms that call Planet Earth their home.

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

Also based upon a soundtrack is “Booneville Stomp,” which can be found on his newest release. This time, Claypool steps away from sci-fi and takes a dive into the horror genre by writing the song for the 2008 release Pig Hunt, which chronicles the story of a 3,000 pound wild boar that wreaks havoc on the marijuana fields of Northern California.

“Basically I had this material lying around that I did for these scores that I really enjoyed. So, I took the material and put lyrics to them and arranged them. I brought in some other material that I had, some stuff that I had lying around, some stuff I did with Eugene Hutz [Gogol Bordello] in sort of a drunken frenzy. And when I eventually had something that seemed cohesive, I slapped it all together and put a title on it,” comments Claypool.

Even though Claypool developed parts of the release for exciting video games and a thriller movie, he doesn’t feel that the album is putting the ‘fun’ in fungi. “It’s a bit darker and eerier than some of the stuff I’ve done in the recent past,” muses Claypool. “It’s very textural, somewhat tribal, sort of abstract Americana.”

In order to recreate the highly original “Abstract Americana” in a live setting, Claypool enlists the help of Mike Dillon (marimba, vibraphone, junkyard percussion), Paulo Baldi (drums) and Sam Bass (cello). The quartet is currently completing a tour though the Americas, but the ever-ambitious artist has no plans to slow down.

“I’ve got some other pots on the stove. I’m not sure what’s going to be moved to the front burner at this point in time,” he says. “I do have to go to Europe later in the year. I’m going to Australia later in the year with this band. I’m trying to get a couple of film projects off the ground. I’m working on another book. Mostly I just need to get my tractor running so I can finish mowing my damn field.”

Les Claypool tour dates available here.

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